The current standard for diagnosing a bacterial infection or bacterial contamination of water or food supply requires a relatively pure sample of bacteria culture. In order to obtain such a culture, the bacteria in the sample has to be grown in special media overnight in specialized, off-site laboratory. Biochemical tests are then used to identify the bacteria present in the culture. This procedure is labor-intensive and requires skilled laboratory technicians, and introduces the element of human error. Cell culturing is also inherently time-consuming and can require days or even weeks to culture slow-growing bacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. 
Alternative methods and/or apparatus that speed up the above process and reduce labor involved have been developed.